Getting Started

Get AYB running and make your first API call in under 5 minutes.

Install

curl (macOS / Linux)

curl -fsSL https://allyourbase.io/install.sh | sh

Homebrew

brew install gridlhq/tap/ayb

Go

go install github.com/allyourbase/ayb/cmd/ayb@latest

Binary download

Download the latest release from GitHub Releases for your OS and architecture.

Docker

docker run -p 8090:8090 ghcr.io/gridlhq/allyourbase

Start the server

Embedded PostgreSQL (zero config)

ayb start

AYB will download and manage its own PostgreSQL instance automatically. No database setup needed.

First run

The very first ayb start downloads a PostgreSQL binary (~70MB). This is a one-time download — subsequent starts take ~300ms.

When you run ayb start for the first time, it will generate a random admin password and display it in the console:

Admin password: a1b2c3d4e5f6...
To reset: ayb admin reset-password

Save this password — you'll need it to access the admin dashboard at http://localhost:8090/admin. If you lose it, run ayb admin reset-password to generate a new one.

External PostgreSQL

ayb start --database-url postgresql://user:pass@localhost:5432/mydb

The API is now live at http://localhost:8090/api and the admin dashboard at http://localhost:8090/admin.

Verify the server is running

curl http://localhost:8090/health

You should see {"status":"ok"}.

Create a table

Create a posts table in your PostgreSQL database:

CREATE TABLE posts (
  id SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
  title TEXT NOT NULL,
  body TEXT,
  published BOOLEAN DEFAULT false,
  created_at TIMESTAMPTZ DEFAULT now()
);

You can run this via the built-in SQL command:

ayb sql "CREATE TABLE posts (
  id SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
  title TEXT NOT NULL,
  body TEXT,
  published BOOLEAN DEFAULT false,
  created_at TIMESTAMPTZ DEFAULT now()
)"

Or use the admin dashboard SQL editor at http://localhost:8090/admin.

Make your first API call

List records

curl http://localhost:8090/api/collections/posts

Response:

{
  "items": [],
  "page": 1,
  "perPage": 20,
  "totalItems": 0,
  "totalPages": 0
}

The table is empty, so items is an empty array (never null).

Create a record

curl -X POST http://localhost:8090/api/collections/posts \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"title": "Hello World", "body": "My first post", "published": true}'

Response (201 Created):

{
  "id": 1,
  "title": "Hello World",
  "body": "My first post",
  "published": true,
  "created_at": "2026-02-17T12:00:00Z"
}

The full row is returned, including server-generated fields like id and created_at.

Filter and sort

curl "http://localhost:8090/api/collections/posts?filter=title='Hello World'&sort=-created_at"

Response:

{
  "items": [
    { "id": 1, "title": "Hello World", "body": "My first post", "published": true, "created_at": "2026-02-17T12:00:00Z" }
  ],
  "page": 1,
  "perPage": 20,
  "totalItems": 1,
  "totalPages": 1
}

Boolean filters

Boolean filters like filter=published=true work but the double = can look confusing in a URL. For string columns, wrap values in single quotes: filter=title='Hello World'.

Get a single record

curl http://localhost:8090/api/collections/posts/1

Response:

{
  "id": 1,
  "title": "Hello World",
  "body": "My first post",
  "published": true,
  "created_at": "2026-02-17T12:00:00Z"
}

Use the JavaScript SDK

npm install @allyourbase/js

import { AYBClient } from "@allyourbase/js";

const ayb = new AYBClient("http://localhost:8090");

// Create
await ayb.records.create("posts", { title: "Hello", published: true });

// List
const { items } = await ayb.records.list("posts", {
  filter: "published=true",
  sort: "-created_at",
});
console.log(items);

Windows

AYB runs on Windows via WSL2. Install WSL (wsl --install) then follow the Linux instructions above.

Next steps

• Authentication — Add user auth, then protect data with RLS
• JavaScript SDK — Build your frontend with the TypeScript SDK
• Deployment — Deploy to production with Docker or bare metal
• REST API Reference — Full endpoint documentation
• Quickstart: Todo App — Build a full CRUD app in 5 minutes
• Comparison — How AYB compares to PocketBase and Supabase
• Configuration — Customize AYB with ayb.toml